The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a swashplate apparatus and, more particularly, to a compact swashplate apparatus by which a control rod is attached to a rotating swashplate.
Modern aircraft, such as a helicopter having a single main rotor or coaxial counter-rotating main rotors and a tail rotor or propeller, typically include a swashplate apparatus at the main rotor (or the coaxial counter-rotating main rotors). The swashplate apparatus includes a non-rotating swashplate and a rotating swashplate that are coupled with one another to permit the rotating swashplate to be driven by the main rotor about a rotational axis. The coupled swashplates can move up and down and tilt to permit the individual blades of the main rotor to be pitched about their respective pitching axes.
The swashplate apparatus is often heavy due to the need to couple pitch control rods to the rotating swashplate, which causes the rotating swashplate and the non-rotating swashplate to have large diameters. Moreover, since the swashplate apparatus is provided within the main rotor support system of the aircraft and may be positioned at or near the top of the airframe of the aircraft, the large diameter of the swashplate apparatus acts as a drag generating feature of the aircraft.